Elan Valley Aqueduct

The 73-mile-long Elan Valley Aqueduct crosses Wales and the English Midlands carrying drinking water to Birmingham. Originally opened in 1906, a project is currently underway to replace dilapidated sections of the aqueduct. ByrneLooby prepared a design to facilitate the excavation of TBM launch and receptions shafts immediately adjacent to the aqueduct at Bleddfa, Wales. The piling works were undertaken by Murphy Ground Engineering Ltd., with BNM Alliance (Barhale & North Midland Construction) responsible for the main works.

Our Role

ByrneLooby were tasked by our client Murphy Ground Engineering to carry out the design of the earth retention systems. We successfully developed efficient design solutions minimising temporary support requirements and realised significant cost and program savings for our client. The project was challenging as it required a deep excavation around the 110-year-old aqueduct. To ensure the existing structure remained largely unaffected by the excavation, strict movement limits were imposed. A further constraint was that the historic structure needed to remain live for the duration of the project. A combination of rotary bored piling and sheet piling were employed as the optimum solution for this project.

Collaboration

The deep excavations around the existing aqueduct required the adoption of piling techniques directly adjacent to and above the aqueduct. ByrneLooby collaborated closely with Murphy Ground Engineering, BNM alliance and the overall works designers GHD to develop a solution to mitigate the risk of damaging the existing aqueduct during the works.